Merton

I love Ashdown amps. I have four. I just bought a Spyder 550 on eBay for peanuts, turns out I paid less than it cost them to make them 😳 My ABM head cost me £90... It’s possibly (perceived) market saturation - they tend to be very easy to get hold of in shops and second hand, and perhaps some of the cheaper ranges have devalued the others. Maybe being a UK company makes this the case - are they seen as more boutique overseas?! They do have an excellent set of class D heads in the RM at the moment and their RM cabs are pretty light so it’s not like they don’t do lightweight stuff. I’ve always found them hugely helpful and respectful - the amount of time they’ve taken over the years talking to me and entertaining me when I pop in to see them is insane, I’m a nobody in the bass playing world but they always have the time for me. All I want now is a CTM preamp in an RM800 box. And a stripped back, half-width ABM500 too. It’s not too much to ask 🤣🤣

Awesome Paul! Forgot how small the ST is - it’s not that much more than the SC is it! Cracking rigs even if the Compact isn’t actually yours

Certainly does - saw you guys supporting Geoff Tate a couple of weeks back in Camden and it sounded immense (yes I recognised the rack from the gig... bass geek... 🤓)

Sounds great

I have played gigs with all sorts of Ashdown heads from the LB30, through the RM500 and RM800, via the CTM100 and up to the ABM500 and monstrous BTA200. They all have their merits - the BTA200 for example is probably the amp I’d choose if I ever got to do a serious set of gigs (I won’t!), though finding one isn’t exactly easy, my favourite amp to this day remains the CTM100, etc.. - but I’d be happy with any of them for rehearsals and small gigs with a rock band. The LB30 won’t ever be clean, but with enough speakers and PA support it’ll sound gloriously dirty and in your face on stage. The ABM, RM800 and BTA can do bigger bass extension with more cleanliness to the tone, and along with the CTM100 can all handle bass duties without PA if necessary. The LB30 certainly won’t fill a room with deep pounding bass in the same way so keep your expectations firmly on gnarly stage monitor and you’ll be fine. HTH

Great cab, it’ll pair really well with the Stubby. Love your Sandberg too, they’re causing me all sorts of uncomfortable GAS feelings at the moment 😳

Bloody wonderful!

I want one 😃

Good shout - edit sadly it’s sold now though

To be fair the original Compact is a very, very different beast. The Super Compact has more mids and is more aggressive sounding. The old Compact is closer to the Two10 I’d say. Another one I saw the other day was the Eich 115, they do a small and large version of that and may be worth considering?

This.

All Barefaced cab sockets in the current range use combi speakon/jack. Only the original Gen 1 and 2 ranges didn’t. So yes the 4x10 has combi sockets

Very cool - I have a Little Bastard and absolutely love it. The Stubby has more versatility thanks to the feedback and gain controls, it’s a great amp

If you’re planning on using it as a preamp/DI box for gigging then yes, you’ll have to buy some form of adapter or suitable lead. Otherwise you’ll find yourself turning up to gigs and annoying the soundman of the venue because you have a TRS rather than XLR socket will happen a fair bit. Not all venues are well equipped for such things

Though @Osiris made some very good points in his first post which I didn’t engage brain enough to consider

My thoughts exactly. Initially looked like an awesome bit of kit but those two things make it a deal breaker for me.

This is very true. Dangerous, but true 🤓

I was tempted to head to GG Epsom this weekend but Ernie Ball don’t do medium scale strings 🤦🏼‍♂️

Oooh interesting - thanks for the heads up!

In addition to @uk_lefty‘s comments I would say the drive section on the RM is significantly more than just a bit of tube grind, which is what you get on the ABM. It’s more like the full on overdrive you can get from a SansAmp Bass Driver DI pedal, only I actually think I prefer the RM drive! You barely need any to go from a clean, but still full-bodied tone, into a dirty driven glorious mess

I never believed this statement until I got a second one a couple of months ago. My word.

That after the length of time I’ve been playing I’m really not that good. My left hand technique is a bit clunky and my right hand technique is lazy as hell and suffers badly from bad habits which I’m struggling to break.